Is it generally easier to get into your OWN STATES' med school?

[xnfs93hy]

I live in NJ and we only have one Allopathic medical school (I think) and an Osteopathic medical school (want to go to an MD school).

I have heard people say that it is so much easier to apply to med schools in your OWN state. What if you state only has one MD school? What if I get rejected from UMDNJ? Am I screwed?

I plan on going to Monmouth University for UG. It is roughly 15 minutes away from my house and they have a BS/MD partnership thing with some med school in Pennsylvania, but I cannot get into that program. I can certainly get in to Monmouth because my grades are on par with them and it is a great school. I just don't want to go there are not get accepted to medical school.

I am just going by what people have been telling me.

I mean, it is very close by, school has a good ranking, people have heard of it...

I feel that I would be able to do VERY well there, because it is so close to home. There are also a TON of hospitals around here.

The only thing that concerns me is research...Rutgers:NB has like a 1B endowment so the students who go there have good research opportunities.

What do you think?

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[RySerr21]

Yes, if its a public school, then IS applicants usually get preference and the GPA/MCAT averages will be a little lower. Thats a general rule b/c if you live in a state like CA it doesnt apply at all (UCs are extremely competitive, high gpa/mcat averages, etc). Its not to say it will be a cake walk to get in to your state school, but generally speaking that will be be an applicants best shot. If you can classify any med school as a "back up," its usually going to be an in state public school. That being said, if you get rejected from that school, it doesnt mean you are screwed for the cycle. Youll quickly learn that not everything is going to make complete sense to you in the app process...you could be interviewed and even accepted at a top 20 school and be rejected pre secondary from one that you considered your "back up." So just apply lots of places and and see what happens.

 

[broken tibula]

Yep. Most public schools take in-state kids before out-of-state kids. Also, tuition is cheaper.

A good measure of this is to look at the school's fast-facts page. They'll usually show what percentage of their kids come from which states.

 

[Depakote]

NJ has 2 allopathic medical schools. (the osteopathic school makes 3)

NJMS and Robert Wood Johnson, both are in the UMDNJ system so they would both give you state preference.

As stated above, it is generally easier to get into your own state's medical school than any other. (Exceptions being the University of California system which is notoriously competitive)

If you don't get into you own state's school all is not lost. The odds are just a little lower and the tuition a little higher.

There are out of state private schools that do not consider state residency when making admissions decisions.

In addition, there are other state schools that accept out of state residents. Some of the state schools in Ohio accept up to 40% out of state students, that's ~80 spots in a class. When it comes time to apply, you just need to look at the admissions percentages for various schools and see which schools have enough OOS spots to be worth applying to.